Xmen Revisited, Chapter 7:The rescue
by Kindar
Summary: My X-men universe: One of Henry's old teacher goes missing so him and the gang go to the rescue
1. Chapter 1

Henry took the ear piece off the dashboard as he merged on the 405. Tony had spared no expenses to get him to LA. A dial pad appeared in the windshield and he punched in the AMA's number. He went through the usual prompts.

"Thomas Black speaking."

"Hi love," he said as the traffic slowed to a crawl. "How would you feel if I bought us a new car?"

"Hey Henry," there was a moment of hesitation, "do we really need one?"

"Probably not." He called up the GPS display. "But I was thinking of getting a Ferrari F430." It gave him real time traffic conditions. The highway was jammed way past the exit he needed. He asked it for an alternate route.

"What brought that on?" Thomas asked. Henry could hear him shuffling papers as they talked.

"Tony had one waiting for me when my plane landed. It's a marvelous model." The route highlighted itself on the windshield and Henry started looking for a gap to get into the right lane.

Thomas sighed. "You know I'm starting to think I should have gone with you to keep you safe."

Henry smiled. "You know, if you go to the airport right now you could be here in time for the sun set. Tony has a beach; a secluded, private beach. Imagine it, just you, me, the setting sun and nothing at all between us."

"You're incorrigible," Thomas said with a groan. "Just promise me you won't let him bribe you into joining his company. I couldn't handle a long distance relationship."

"You have nothing to worry about. This is just a consult for an old friend; I'll be flying back to you tonight."

"You'd better, it was strange enough waking up without you next to me."

Henry sneaked in through a gap barely large enough for the car. "You might have to go to bed without me, but I promise that you won't wake up alone this time."

"I'll hold you to it, Thomas said. "About the car, how serious are you?"

"Slightly."

"Then let's discuss it again when you're home."

"Ok. I love you."

"I love you too."

Henry put the ear piece back and pressed the button that made the roof retract. It was a warm sunny morning so he was going to enjoy it.

Fifteen minutes later he had finally travelled the mile separating him from the closest exit. He followed the GPS's directions at a leisurely speed, enjoying the sites and smells of the city. He reached the road that took him along the coast and followed it until Tony's house came into view.

Henry was still amazed at the size of it. Its curved forms reigned over the top of the escarpment. Tony had shown him the plans as soon as he'd finished them and the only thing he'd been able to think about them back then was what did one man need with all that space? Of course, the space had been used for some very memorable parties. But that had been when they were both younger.

The GPS guided him to the gate, which opened as he slowed down, and then to the entrance to the house. Henry was surprised, he'd expected to drive the car to the garage like the last time he'd been over. He turned off the car and got out of it. He didn't have to worry about the keys, this model was activated with a key code. He was halfway up the steps when he heard the car start; he turned and watched as it drove itself to the garage.

When he turned back Tony was standing in the doorway. He looked as suave as always in his white shirt and black suit. Unless Tony was elbow deep inside an engine Henry had never seen him dressed casually.

"Mac!" Tony exclaimed with open arms.

"Stark!" Henry responded in kind, climbing the last few steps and giving his old friend a hug. "That was a neat trick," he said afterward, thumbing over his shoulder.

"Thanks," Tony said as he guided Henry inside. "Everything on the property is mapped out in the car's computer, it even knows where its parking spot is. I figure that within the next year I'll have the optical avoidance system perfected and I can get it to drive on the roads. How was your flight?"

The entrance hall and large living room further in were warm but impersonal, The pictures on the wall were landscape paintings, all originals. There was a gas fireplace with fake logs. The bar at the back of the room only had a few bottles of alcohol. There was a grand piano in an alcove near the stairs going to the second floor.

It was very different from when Tony was a party animal. Now it looked like a proper place to hold a reception for stock holders and lawyers; which Tony had to do on a regular basis. Henry knew the rest of the house had a much more lived in look.

"It was good, but you really didn't have to spring for first class you know."

"Hey, I wanted to get my private jet to pick you up, but no, you're much too good for that."

Henry chuckled. "I like flying commercial."

"Don't you get tired of people staring and whispering behind your back?" They went up the stairs and Henry watched the water cascade down the wall behind them. That hadn't been there the last time.

"With Thor on TV every other half hour I don't look that imposing anymore."

Tony looked at him over his shoulder. "I meant . . . you know."

Henry rolled his eyes. "As you've noticed, I don't wear a sign that says: 'I'm gay'. And unlike you I don't have to flirt with everyone that attracts my attention."

"You can't blame him," a woman said as they reach the top of the stairs, "after all he wouldn't be Tony if he didn't."

"Pepper!" Henry said with a wide smile. He shouldered Tony aside and hugged her. "Still no luck in getting him to stop?"

"Hello Mac." She gave a theatrical sigh. "No, even saying yes when he asked me to marry him didn't put a stop to it. Did you know that he was hitting on my maid of honor during the reception?"

"I did notice," he replied solemnly, "but that's ok, I was hitting on his best man." He moved close to her ear. "And I think got further with him than Tony did with her." He said that in a stage whisper so Tony would hear it, when he pulled back he gave Pepper a wink.

"Wait, what? You hit on Rhodey?" Tony joined them in a few steps. "Please tell me you didn't bed my best friend at my own wedding."

Henry raised his hands. "That between me and him; anyway, you were busy enough that night, what did it matter if I did?" He sat down on the couch. The room was very similar to the one on the floor below, but about half the size, and the low table was covered with magazines, tech journals, finances, and even a Cosmo.

Tony didn't say anything. Henry recognized the look on his face from the times they had worked on problems together. He was probably going over every conversation trying to find a clue to if he'd slept with him or not.

After a full minute of silence Pepper started giggling.

Tony looked at her and then at Henry.

Henry chuckled. "Come on Tony. Even back then I wasn't suicidal enough to hit on someone in the military. Do you know what they did to guys like me back then?"

Tony visibly relaxed and Pepper wrapped an arm around him. "Yep, my husband flirts with pretty much every woman he meets. But that's ok, he doesn't actually do anything else with them." She gave him a light kiss just as the door at the back of the room opened.

A young girl walked in carrying a tray with four tall glasses. She was wearing a salmon coloured dress over a light beige skin tight body suit. She walked with deliberate slowness, making sure the glasses weren't jostled.

Henry moved some of the magazine out of the way when she got close to the table.

She put the tray down and straightened up, with a proud smile.

Henry smiled extended a hand toward her. "Hello Jennifer." She looked like a miniature version of her mother.

She took the hand. "Hello Mister McCoy."

"Please, call me Mac," he replied with a smile, "You're growing up to be a fine young lady." He added, to which she giggled.

She pickead up a glass and handed it to him. "I made it myself."

"What is it?"

"Lemonade."

Peppers knelt next to her daughter as Henry took a sip, He controlled his reaction as the overly sour taste hit his tongue.

"Honey, did Happy help you make it?"

Jenifer shook her head before handing a glass to her mother and her father.

Tony took a long swallow and smiled. "Yes, it is very good." He mussed her hair. "Can you take your mother to the kitchen and show her how you made it? Me and Mac need to talk."

Jenifer nodded and Pepper picked up the tray. Henry watched Tony looked at them as they left.

"You know. There was a time the only thing that would get a sincere look of admiration from you was a well designed engine."

Tony smiled at him. "My priorities changed." He sat down in the seat opposite Henry and drank some more of the lemonade.

"Can I be honest here?"

"Sure."

"I never thought you'd make it work. The marriage, being a father." He added when Tony raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't think I would either. That first year together was tough, but Pepper is the reason I'm alive. Even before I fell in love with her she was what kept Howard's shadow from strangling me, or the weight of the company from crushing me. She took care of me when I was drunk out of my mind and cleaned up the messes I made. And one day I stayed sober long enough to realize what she meant to me. So I drank until I had the courage to ask her to marry me."

"And she said yes."

Tony snorted. "Hardly. She told me to ask her again when I was sober. The thought scared me so much it took six month before I was sober again. Then she said yes. And I've been pretty much sober since then." He finished his glass.

"How can you drink that? I mean, no offence to your daughter, but even for lemonade it's pretty horrible."

"Through sheer determination not to give my daughter any reasons to think I don't love her. She changed my life as much as Pepper did."

"Yeah, I remember. I saw the highlights of the conference on the news. I don't think I remember the media going that crazy before you announced you were shutting down your weapon's division."

"Having a child changes your outlook on life. When I realized that one day she would ask me why I made something that killed, and that I couldn't come up with a real answer. I knew that I had to get out of that game."

"Having you didn't seem to have that effect on your father."

"Howard didn't want me or my mother. We were just window dressing for the corporate image that went with his success. He almost had a heart attack when he found out I was thinking of shutting down the division. Then he did have one when I told him I was selling that division to Stane. Even as he died last year Howard was still cursing my name."

"The move didn't' really affect your company that much." Henry commented, "The advances in medical research for humans and mutants more than made up for it. Then there's your automotive division."

"Yeah, but the amount of work involved was tremendous. Howard was only interested in the easy money, and that was in weapon designing."

There was an uncomfortable silence for a few moments after that.

"Come on," Tony said as he stood, "I didn't ask you over to mull about my family. I need your help with something."

Tony lead Henry down to his workshop.

"Don't you ever clean this place?" Henry asked as he entered. The tables were covered with stuff. Two of them had engines in various states of assembly (or disassembly), one had something that looked like a leg prosthetic and the others, Henry couldn't even guess what was on them.

Tony went to the one table that wasn't occupied and ran a hand over it; menus appeared in the air. He watched as Tony navigated through them until he brought up what he wanted. Henry was impressed, he hadn't figured out how to make a hologram interactive yet.

Henry looked at the image hanging in the air. It was a body suit with cut aways and comments attached to them. It took him a moment to realize it was Jenifer's.

"Jenifer's suit isn't working properly anymore. It isn't keeping her warm when she uses her power. Since you helped me design it I figure you can help me figure out what's going on with it."

Henry nodded. He remembered the frenzied call from his friend four years ago, the story of the fire that had burned down Pepper's parent's house and how Jenifer had put it out by burying everything in snow. No one had known she was a mutant, but the real problem was that Jenifer wasn't immune to the cold she generated; her power had almost killed her.

Tony and he had spent a week working on a crude heat suit to make sure she didn't give herself frostbite by accident. And then half a year on designing the one she now wore. This one could sense her body temperature and adjust to maintain it within a comfortable range.

"What happened?" He asked.

"She's been complaining of feeling cold when she cools stuff down. I've looked over the suit she was wearing then, but I didn't find anything wrong with it. Then it happened again when she was wearing another one. I've examined all of them, but they are working exactly as we designed them to work." As he spoke Tony moved the virtual suit around, opening it, removing layers to show Henry what he had looked at and tested.

Henry watched until he started getting dizzy. "Tony, slow down. I can't help if I can't follow along."

"Sorry. Got carried away."

"I could tell. I'm surprise you don't have one of those that works life size."

Tony nodded to the back of the room. "Actually . . ."

Henry looked at where tony indicated. It was a glass room with nothing but a pedestal in the middle of it. He shook his head with a chuckle. "Ok, so we've established that you like working in virtual, but I'm much better with real world object."

"I can take care of that." Tony moved what looked like a muffler out of the way and opened a door. Out of it he pulled a bright pink body suit. "She decided that it was too pink for her to wear." He handed it to him.

Henry looked it over for a moment before looking back at Tony. "I'm going to need Jenifer in it."

"Do you really?" Tony asked with a worried expression on his face.

"Tony, you've looked the suit over. You don't make mistakes with stuff like that; this is where your genius is. If you say the suit is working as it should, then it is. That means that something must have changed with Jenifer. Mutants . . ."

"I know, I know," Tony interrupted him, "No two mutant power works exactly the same. Even though her power is like that skater kid that's been on TV they don't work the same way."

"Robert Drake, yes. His power over cold came with an immunity to it. He can lower his own body temperature to the point where he's almost ice and he doesn't feel it, while Jenifer's didn't. But more than that, Mutant powers can change over time. Jenifer is unusual in that her mutation kicked in when she was four, so it is quite possible that it is still evolving."

Tony opened his mouth, he looked like he was going to argue, but then closed it and looked away. He walked to the intercom and hesitated before pressing the call button. "P . . . Pepper?"

"Yes?" she answered after a moment.

He hesitated again before talking. "Can you bring Jenifer to my workroom? Henry needs to examine her."

A few minutes later Pepper and Jenifer walked in. Pepper looked worried while Jenifer was smiling as she looked around.

"Come on kiddo," Tony said as he patted the seat of a lager reclining chair, "I need you to sit here."

Henry's cell rang as Jenifer sat down. He checked it quickly, but didn't recognize the number so he let it go to his voice mail.

"Are there going to be needles?" She asked him as he stepped next to the chair.

"No," Henry assured her, "I won't need those. I just want to examine you and your power, if that's ok with you."

"As long as there's no needles. I hate needles." She said resolutely.

Henry set up sensors around her and the space he was going to use. He had Tony put some sensors directly on Jenifer, under the suit. When everything was in place he asked her to cool down a piston he placed on a table a few feet from her.

"How cold do you want it?" she asked him

"Just bring it to the freezing point for now."

"Ok, how fast?"

Henry was surprised at the question. "Not too fast, I just want to run a calibration test."

Henry watched the screen with the infrared display. Jenifer's temperature started dropping and then raising again as the suit compensated. As that happened the air between her and the piston became colder, and then the piston cooled down too.

"That's good, you can stop." The temperatures came back up to normal. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm ok. This is easy. I can get it colder, and much faster too."

"How cold can you get it?"

"I don't know, I don't have a thermometer when I practice."

"When have you been practicing?" Tony asked.

Jenifer shrugged. "Here and there."

He knelt next to the chair. "Why honey? You know you have to be careful now, especially since your suit isn't working as well as it should."

"Thor says that we have to practice so we can be good. Do you want me to show you how good I've become?"

"That's ok honey." Tony said.

Henry just had the time to pull Tony away with a curse. On the screen Jenifer had quickly gone from red down to deep blue before he'd pulled him away. Now she was almost black. The air around her shimmered as the humidity in it froze and Henry took a few steps back again.

Even at four feet away his breath misted.

The chair became covered with frost and moments later started cracking and then it shattered. Jenifer fell to the ground and the air in the room came back up to normal.

Henry rushed to her. Her skin was blue and she was shivering heavily. "Pepper get a bath ready with cold water! Now!" he added when she didn't move.

"What happened?" Tony asked.

Henry didn't look up from Jenifer as he checked her pulse. "Tony. I need you to get all the ice in the house and dump it in the bath." His voice was hard.

Once Tony left Henry carefully turned Jenifer over and unplugged the power supply to the suit. He then picked her up and brought her to the bathroom. Once Tony had dumped a bucket of ice in the water he lowered her in it.

"Shouldn't we try to warm her up instead?" Pepper asked.

"We can't do it too quickly. Otherwise the shock is what will kill her." He turned the hot water tap to a trickle. "I'm going to be in the hallway. If she stops shivering at any point call me."

He sat on the floor next to the door and rested his head against the wall. He took out his cell to call Thomas and was reminded that he had a message waiting.

"Hello?" it was a woman, the voice was vaguely familiar. "I don't know if you remember me but my name is Alicia Montrose. We met during Maurice's class. I need your help. I think something happened to Maurice. Please call me as soon as you can."

* * * * *

Henry looked up when Tony came out of the bathroom. "How is she?"

Tony leaned against the opposing wall. "No change." He closed his eyes and took a few deep breathes.

Henry was silent for a moment, looking at his cell. "At least we know her power won't outright kill her."

Tony's head snapped and he glared at him. "Won't kill her? What the hell do you call that?" he pointed at the door.

Henry had never seen his friend's face this contorted by anger, but he could understand it. He wasn't thinking like a scientist at the moment, but like a father. "Tony," he said calmly, "you saw what happened to the chair. I happened to glance at the monitor before it stopped working and the temperature around Jenifer was very close to absolute zero. The suit had no way to deal with that, if her power was going to kill her directly it would have done that then."

"Then why is she suffering from frostbite now?" Tony's voice was a mix of anger and worry.

"Because at this time her resistance to cold doesn't match her ability to produce it, but based on what she did when she was four and how it affected her, and what she just did I would say that it is improving. It's conceivable that she will eventually become fully resistant to her power."

That thought calmed Tony. "What are we suppose to do until then?"

"We work on improving the suit, on teaching her restraint. She's smart, after this she'll know to be more careful."

* * * * *

Henry quietly closed the door, careful not to wake Thomas. The sky was just starting to lighten and while his ability to see in the dark was no where near that of his lover, there was enough light coming in through the window for him to make out his sprawled form on the bed.

Henry hadn't expected to be back before sun up. Jennefer's condition slowly improved, but it didn't look like she would wake soon. He'd been about to call Thomas before he went to bed to let him know that he would stay longer than planned, but Tony insisted he went back home. Henry argued that he should stay, but Tony pointed out Jennifer body temperature was close to normal. Normal doctors could look after her now.

Henry had been too exhausted to argue long, and in the end Tony's driver, Happy, drove him to the airport, where Tony's private jet was waiting. Henry nodded on and off in the car and then slept soundly during the flight so that now he felt awake enough to last the day.

He smiled as he undressed, watching Thomas turn and throw the last of the sheets off his body. It was a bit of a joke between them that almost every morning Henry would wake up buried in the bed covers Thomas had thrown off during the night.

Henry climbed in the bed and laid next to his boyfriend, watching him sleep. He didn't' worry about waking him as he moved on the bed. Because of the difference in their body mass Henry had created a force absorbing gel and made their mattress out of it. He could jump on it if he wanted and Thomas wouldn't even feel it.

Henry gently ran a finger along Thomas' arm and his lover sighed contently before turning toward him and snuggling against the larger body. Henry kisses Thomas' forehead before wrapping an arm around him and pulling him a little tighter. With his own contented sigh he closed his eyes and waited for the alarm clock to ring.


	2. Chapter 2

Henry put the phone number in the reverse look up and it only took a moment for the information to come up. Alicia Montrose's name had rung a bell when she said it and her voice had sounded familiar, but it was only when she mentioned Maurice's class that he placed her.

Her address came up, she live in Student housing. He hacked the Harvard computer to get more information on her. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, but her reaction to his orientation really hadn't been good, even if she did seem to take his points during the class seriously. And now she was contacting him saying Maurice was in trouble; something didn't sit quite right with him.

The search through the web didn't reveal anything suspicious. Her family had money, but not enough for them to avoid needing grants and loans. Alicia's grades had allowed her to go mostly with grants.

After looking all the information over he went to the kitchen to get himself a coffee. He could have used the coffee machine in his lab, but he wanted the time to think. If Maurice was in trouble, why was *she* the one calling him instead of Maurice himself.

He nodded to Katherine as he walked by her office, and then to Bishop as he passed him, carrying a tool box. Henry stopped in his track and looked over his shoulder at the black man's broad back. When had the man's presence in the mansion become so common place that he barely noticed it anymore? Even Scott didn't react with startlement anymore when he ran into Ororo's lover by accident.

Henry shook his head and chuckles softly at his own reaction. If anyone here was smart enough to know change was a constant it should be him.

He made a new carafe of coffee and tried to think things over. He wanted to think on Alicia, but found himself thinking about Bishop instead. The man hadn't moved in yet, and it didn't look like he was going to but he was spending a lot of time here with Ororo.

He was helping around the mansion, visibly sweet on Ororo, and now that most were polite with him he was polite in return. If Henry met him today for the first time, he would never believe anyone describing how he used to be.

Large cup of coffee in hand he headed back to his lab, he'd decided that if someone like Bishop could really change, then he had to give Alicia the benefit of the doubt.

He dialed the number and sat back.

"H . . . hello?" he recognized Alicia's voice.

"Could I speak to Miss Alicia Montrose please?" Just because he knew it was her didn't mean he couldn't be polite.

"Speaking." He voice was weak and Henry couldn't shake the feeling she had been crying.

"This is Henry McCoy, you called me yest. . . ."

"Oh thank God you called back," she interrupted him. "I was afraid you wouldn't want to talk with me"

"No, no," he replied, feeling a small amount of guilt over delaying. "I'm sorry for not taking your call yesterday, but I was in the middle of something"

"That doesn't matter now, look I need your help, Maurice didn't show up for class this week and no one's seen him for four days now. I don't know what to do. I really need your help."

"All right Miss Mont . . . Alicia, I need you to calm down. I won't be able to help you until I know exactly what happened. Take a few deep breathes and tell me what happened, slowly."

"I'm sorry, I'm just such a wreck over this." She took the breaths Henry recommended. "On Monday Maurice's TA taught his ethic's class. I didn't question it because it sometime happens, but then he didn't show up for dinner. I called his house but he didn't pick up. On Tuesday I checked with his TA. Maurice hadn't shown up at all on Monday, he hadn't even brought in the papers needed for the classes. I went to his house but he wasn't there. Nothing looked out of place, but it didn't look like he'd been home in a few days.

"At that point I called the police. It's been four days now and they still don't know anything. I thought of you. You're a mutant, and your boyfriend works for the government I thought maybe you could help out or get the police to work harder, I don't know, I just want something to be done to bring him back." She ended with her voice cracking with sobs.

Henry gave her time to calm down, impressed that there had been no hesitation when she said 'boyfriend'. "How did you enter his house?"

"I have a key. He gave it to me after we'd been going out for a month."

"You and him?" Henry stammered, not quite able to wrap his head around it.

"I know what you're thinking, he's forty-two years older than I am, but after your lecture we started talking, well debating really, and we did it more and more and I started realizing how smart, kind and handsome he was, and well, we started going out."

Henry stopped himself from making a snarky comment. It wasn't his place to judge them, but handsome? There were many words he could use to describe Maurice, but handsome wouldn't have been one he'd use.

"It isn't my place to comment, but it does explain your current state."

"I'm sorry about that."

"Please don't be. I know the police have already asked you this, but can you think of any reasons Maurice might have had to just leave?"

"No, I can't. Monday was our two months anniversary, that's why we were having dinner together."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"On Friday for his class, I went home after that for the weekend since it was my dad's birthday."

"Can you think of anyone who might want to kidnap him?"

"No, I can't, but I don't really know much of what he does outside of the school and our time together."

Henry nodded to himself. Maurice did have a bunch of private projects for himself and some private investors. "Ok, I'll look into it and let you know what I find."

"Thank you, thank you so much."

Henry spent some time collecting information and putting it in an email before calling Katherine.

"Hi, you busy?"

"Not really, just testing a client's security with a heuristic attack," she replied, sounding bored.

"ok, I'm emailing you some stuff. When you have the chance can you hack the city's camera network and see if you can find the man in it?"

"Sure. You don't want to do it yourself?"

"I'm pursuing another line of inquiry."

"Ok, I'll let you know what I've found by dinner time."

"Thanks."

Henry wrote down three names that came to him as people Maurice had either worked with or were currently working with him. An internet search gave him five other names, so he started making calls.

Of the eight, he was unable to reach four, and two of those he was able to confirm were also missing. That made three geneticists at the top of the field who were missing. Searching through the news media he found two more, although he was surprised to find that one name was missing.

"V.D. enterprises, how may I direct your call?"

"Victor Von Doom's office please."

"On moment."

"Victor Von Doom's office, how can I help you?"

"I'd like to speak with Victor please."

"I'm sorry, but Mister Von Doom isn't taking any calls at the moment."

"Could you tell him that Henry McCoy needs to speak with him."

"I'm sorry, but he left instructions not to be disturbed."

"Please, just tell him I'm on the line and let him make the decision."

There was a moment of hesitation. "Hold a moment."

Thirty second later Victor was on the phone.

"Henry, I'm surprised that you called."

"To be honest Victor, I'm surprised that you're there to take my call."

"What do you mean?"

"Five geneticists have been kidnapped; I had expected them to try to kidnap you too."

"No one is stupid enough to try that with me, but someone did try to kidnap Susan."

"Is she ok?" Henry had met Victor's wife at a conference a few years before. She was a lovely woman and very bright, it hadn't taken him long to understand what Victor saw in her.

"She's fine, her bodyguard hardly had to do any of the work."

"Do you think they went after her to get to you?"

"It's possible, but remember she's one of the top biochemist in the world, it's just as probable that someone was after her for her set of skills, after all geneticist on their own can only get so much accomplished, at some point they need a biochemist to continue the work."

Henry nodded to himself. He hadn't considered that. "When was the attempt?"

"Last week. She was in Switzerland for a conference."

The time frame did match. "Can you forward me all the reports on the attempt?"

"I can arrange it."

"Thank you Victor."

Henry hung up and found himself surprised at someone else's behavior. He'd gone into the call fully expecting Victor to give him a hard time. Could it be that he had started assuming the worst in people at some point?

He filed the question to the back of his mind for later and started doing other online searches, he needed to know if more scientist had gone missing.


	3. Chapter 3

Henry cleared out the large hexagonal table in the center of the room and turned it on. The top of the table turned white and then slowly ran through the colour spectrum. When that was done it became gray again and the same colour check happened above it. Over the next five minutes, one inch at a time the air above ran through the sequence. When it was done a cylinder two feet in height above the table became translucent gray and a head appeared in it. The image was grainy, but it was three dimensional. It was that of a wrinkled old man with a crown of white hair going down to his shoulders and a white beard trimmed to a point.

"Test sequence completed." The head said to one of the empty seat. "Now choose the danger you wish to face," it added, its voice full of authority

Henry punched a command on the keyboard and the head froze. He sat at the console and punched a few more commands. The others weren't going to be here for some time so he had time to do this.

"How do you keep popping up like this," He asked the unmoving head. "I deleted you four times already."

He'd designed and built the table a few years ago in an effort to one up Tony in the holographic field. He'd created a fully three dimensional holographic game he'd called the Danger Room. It was a fighting game for multiple players, they could either fight each other one on one, in teams or team up against a common enemy. The face looking at him was the Arbiter, who proclaimed who the winners were. Henry had thought it was a cute addition to his game.

Henry had even built the controls to work via radio frequencies so the players could move around the display to keep track of what was going on. Once it was done he'd invited Tony over to show it off. They'd played a few games and he had been suitably impressed. A month later he invited Henry to LA and showed him his own creation, a similar table with a resolution ten times sharper, four times the processing speed and requiring half the power to run.

That was the day Henry had admitted to himself that Tony was the unquestioned master when it came to creating machines. He'd come home, moth balled the table and the entire room since all the computers in it were dedicated to it. He expected to cannibalize the part for something else at some point, but before that happened Scott started making use of it. Using it to built models of the areas where some of his projects were going to happen.

So Henry repurposed the table, erasing the game and installing all sort of 3D design programs as well as management and linking it to the net so Scott could pull the information he needed. The Arbiter should have been erased with the game, but somehow that part of the program had migrated somewhere else and kept coming back even though Henry was certain he'd deleted it.

He tracked down the Arbiter program to a sub, sub menu in one of the peripheral's memory and spent the next half hour trying to figure out how it had ended up there. He couldn't find any trace of how the program had moved off the table's primary memory where it had been stored with the rest of the danger room. He deleted it and uploaded the files he needed for the briefing from his lab's computer.

Katherine came in a few minutes later with a large carafe of coffee. The smell made Henry looked up and around for his mug. Before he had time to chastise himself for having left it in his lab she put it on the table and filled it.

"Thanks," he said before taking a sip.

"You're welcome." She sat down in the seat next to his and started typing, accessing her terminal for the information she would need.

Peter came in not long after with a trey of sandwiches. He put it on top of one of the mainframes and then left. He came back carrying four stools. Scott, Jean, Ororo and Bishop arrived together, each couple brining a dozen donuts and another carafe of coffee. They stood around chatting until Thomas ran in.

"Sorry I'm late," he said before giving Henry a quick kiss on the cheek and sitting down next to him. He plugged in a USB memory stick next to his console and took off his jacket.

"Since we're now all here," Scott said, leaning against the wall, "Why don't you give us the situation Mac."

Henry nodded and looked around. The room felt crowded, it had never been quite this full. Normally it was only him and Scott, maybe Katherine if her knowledge would help the planning. The briefings usually happened in the living room so the other would know what they had to do. Thomas had certainly never been part of planning an operation with them before.

"A week ago a close friend to one of my teachers from Harvard called me and told me he'd gone missing. He didn't show up for classes and even missed an important dinner. Looking into his disappearance I've come up with twenty-six other scientists who've gone missing."

Henry typed a command and images floated up over the table. Online news reports, missing person's files, even a couple of clips from a news show slowly rotated so they could all see them.

"We have geneticist, biochemist, biologist and even some top rated lab tech who have gone missing within a two weeks period all over the world."

"Hasn't anyone else made the connection?" Peter asked.

"The worlds a big place," Henry replied, "people go missing in it all the time. I probably wouldn't have realized the kidnappings extended outside the geneticist if not for a lucky phone call."

"Are you sure these are kidnappings?" Scott asked him.

"Reasonably sure at this point." Henry nodded to Katherine.

"Mac asked me to use Boston's city camera to figure out what happened to his friend. I couldn't find anything conclusive, but there was this." She brought up a grainy black and white image. "Boston is testing a camera system to make their streets safer. This one is at the end of the block where Maurice lives. It takes a picture every two minutes. Pay attention to the black van parked on the side street." A few frames clicked by and then the van disappeared.

"Are you sure?" Ororo asked, "A black van is rather cliché for kidnappers."

"I know, but there's also this." She pulled up a black image.

"What is it?" Ororo asked

"Listen." Katherine raised the volume.

"What'd you want?" some scuffle, "hey, let go of me." More scuffle, the sound of a door sliding shut, then one opening and closing. And engine revving and leaving.

"Can you play it again?" Bishop asked. Katherine nodded and restarted the recording. "I can make out three people moving. So that's two kidnappers. There's also what sounds like a gun being cocked. That's why he isn't offering anymore resistance."

Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"Ok, my program missed the gun," Katherine said, impressed. "I did run the engine through the sound registry the federal law enforcement built and it came back as a Chevrolet Express"

Thomas coughed. "I didn't hear you say that." He stated.

Katherine simply nodded and continued. "That model looks like the van we have here so I followed it through the city to this building." The image of an eight story gray brick building came up. "It's the main research facility for Brandon pharmaceutical. I poked around their security system and it's impressive. They have a sole connection point to the outside and the Sentinel programs they have looking over it make it virtually impossible to get in undetected. I tried to find out their pedigree, but it's wrapped into so many shadow corporations that I handed it to Thomas."

"They are connected to over a hundred other legitimate companies, through about three times that number of shadow corps." He put up the tree of connections." I won't bore you by going through all of them. The one that caught my attention is Archangel Financing."

"Why is it special?" Jean asked.

Thomas looked to Scott.

Scott stepped to his console and punched in a name. "Everyone here familiar with Genietech?" he asked as the unzipping helix that was the company's symbol appeared.

"I'm not," Bishop said.

Scott raised an eyebrow. "Genietech was a genetic research company involved in questionable research for over twenty years. About five years ago I learned that they were experimenting on mutants so I started investigating them. We build quite a money trail on them during that time."

With a few more command Scott removed the prior images and brought up a connection tree that put Thomas' to shame. A dozen branches left from Genietech to touch companies who has some time just as many other connections.

"What we found out was that it was only one cog in a very large machine. A lot of those connections seem to go back to some common point we haven't been able to identify yet, and almost as many go through Archangel Financing."

"That's impressive," said Thomas, "We don't have anywhere near that much on Genietech. I don't want to know how you got all that information, do I?"

"No," Scott replied, "but you're welcome to the information if you don't think the Commander will question where it's from."

"He won't question it too much. Any information on Genietech and the structure behind it is welcome. Do you have anything usable on the other companies?"

Scott shook his head. "They run a very tight ship. The few companies where I was able to insert someone don't seem to be doing anything wrong. Archangel itself has been impenetrable to date."

"I didn't bring what we have on Archangel," Thomas said, "but I can tell you that we have very little also. On the books they are a venture company specializing on genetic research. We have found hints that they might be founding some illegitimate work, but nothing we've been able to prove."

"This is all fine and good," said Bishop, "but it doesn't prove they're the one who kidnapped Henry's friend."

That's correct," Henry replied, "and I do wish you'd start calling me Mac. Katherine. I believe you have more."

"About a month ago, that's two weeks before the first kidnapping we know of. They discretely started buying cots from army surplus. Since the kidnapping started the food they've been purchasing has almost triple and the power consumption as almost double.

"They've also purchased enough V3425-C to cover an entire floor."

Of those assembled only Scott, Henry and Thomas knew what the V3425-C was.

Thomas sat up. "Where the hell did they get that? The 'C' model is only supposed to be made for the AMA's high power prisons."

"They ordered them from the manufacturer."

"In the black?"

Katherine nodded

"How did our auditors miss that? We're supposed to be keeping a close eye on that company."

"What is it?" Ororo asked.

It was Henry who answered. "The V3425-C is a power dampener. The most powerful one currently made. The A model needs to be on the mutant's whose power are being cancelled. The B will dampen a room, but a powerful enough mutant can overcome it. The C is supposed to be able to contain even the most powerful of us."

"It does," confirmed Thomas, "that's why we use it. And why we restrict its distribution."

"Then they are also holding mutants captive," Peter said.

"Or they are making sure mutants can't intervene," said Henry.

"OK, so that pretty much confirms they're the ones," Bishop said. "then all we have to do is do there, blow the doors get everyone out."

"We can't do that," Scott said.

"Why not?"

Ororo put an arm in Bishop's. "Because we can't prove they've done anything illegal. All the evidence we have is circumstantial."

"Not to mention that we don't have any legal powers," added Katherine.

"Then what are we going to do?" Bishop asked.

Henry rubbed his hands together and smiled. "We get to be sneaky."

* * * * *

The meeting went on for two more hour as they planned what they were going to do. When they finally left everyone was exhausted. Henry was so tired he even forgot to shut down the table.

A minute after everyone left the images still left in the cylinder shivered and the old man's head appeared over them. It looked down at them and they moved about as if he was studying each one in turn. Even the images that had been removed during the meeting were brought back.

When it was done looking through them it nodded in satisfaction. It looked at the closed door and smiled with pride before disappearing, the table turning itself off a moment later.


	4. Chapter 4

Henry wished he could move.

When he'd build the secret compartment under the bench at the back of their 1978 Chevrolet Beauville it was to hide items, not someone and certainly not someone with his large frame; having the extra items hidden in there with him certainly wasn't helping.. He'd only been hiding in it for ten minutes and he was already cramping up. The one advantage of his situation was that he was wedged in it so tightly that he didn't bounce around when the van hit a pothole.

The van stopped and Katherine talked with the guard at the entrance of the underground parking. She flirted with him a little as he went over her identification; they had intercepted a package that needed to be delivered. Katherine got out and walked to the side of the van. The sliding door opened and the guard commented on the size of the package that was on the middle banquette.

The door was closed and a moment later Katherine was back in the driver's seat. The van moved for a minute and then stopped again. The engine turned off.

"We're in position," Katherine said, "Give me at least ten minutes to make the delivery and then find where their server room is." She exited the van.

Henry slapped the cover off the bench and proceeded to extricate himself. The sides of the bench bent a little and complained, but they didn't break. They were a double layer of quarter inch titanium with a film of Henry's design in between. The film would trick any x-ray machine into seeing a tool box, a lose wrench and an empty coke can regardless of what was in it.

Finally Henry was out, not that the low ceiling let him get any more comfortable. He swiveled the middle banquette and pushed it against the left wall and slid the door open.

The van was parked against a concrete wall with the air vent cut in it perfectly centered in the door's opening. Henry took a screw driver set out of one of the compartments next to the door and found the right head to remove the vent cover.

The vent was rectangle a foot and a half high by two wide. It would take someone the size of a child to be able to crawl through them and based on the blueprints they were able to get from the security company who had wired the building there was a laser tripwire every ten feet. Brandon pharmaceutical was very serious about their security.

He took out the spool of fiber optic cable from where inside the bench where he had been hiding and secured it with a rod in the doorway. He had tried to hide it somewhere else, but it was the only place a five hundred feet spool of cable would fit.

He gave the spool a spin before taking the cushions off the middle banquette and throwing them in the open bench. He grabbed the leather handles that had been revealed and carefully lifted the metal plate that was the seating area. When it was out of the banquette he turned it, careful not to bang the monitors that were attached. He secured it against the backrest of the banquette.

He pulled out the hooks from the top of the backrest and lifted the whole thing up the two feet he needed to hook them on the hidden latches in the ceiling. In the process he also lifted the base of the banquette to table height. On it were three clipped down laptops.

He swiveled the passenger chair and slid it until he was comfortably seated in front of the workstation. He turned on the left most monitor and a split image of the view from the four sides of the van appeared.

"Mac," Katherine called softly.

Henry turned and in the ventilation opening was Katherine's head. "Any trouble finding the server room?" he asked as he took out a bag containing a few tools and 'U' shape hooks.

Katherine's hands extended through the concrete wall. "No, it's on the fifth floor, right off the main ventilation trunk."

"So about two hundred feet of cable?" Henry handed her the bag, waiting for her nod before letting go.

"At the most," she answered as she closed her hand on the handles and brought the bag through the wall. "Shouldn't take me for than half an hour to get the cable there and connect it."

"Are you going to be ok?" Henry asked as he pulled on the end of the cable and placed it six inched inside the vent.

"I'll be ok," she said. One of the 'U' hooks phased up though the bottom of the vent until the cable was surrounded by it. "This isn't the first time I've had to maintain partial phasing for an extended period." She took hold of the end of the cable and pulled it up to make sure the hook was solidly fixed. "I'll be back shortly."The spool spun as she moved away. It stopped every so often as she anchored the cable down.

Henry used the time to turn the laptops on and run them through their paces.

Twenty five minutes later Katherine phased through the van and plopped down on the driver's seat, panting and covered in sweat. She nodded to Henry and he connected the cable to the junction box under the table and all monitors came to life.

^We're ready,^ He thought for Jean's benefit.

* * * * *

^Remember people,^ Scott said as he got out of the car, ^this is a rescue, not an attack. Violence is to be an absolute last resort.^ He put the glasses on, the clear lenses didn't have any magnification, but they completed the look. He'd spent the last week letting his beard grow. With his hair slicked back and the contact lenses changing his eyes' colour to brown he was hardly recognizable. Wearing a grey suit he looked quite respectable.

Jean got out from the other side in a matching suit. Thomas exited from the back wearing a black business suit and they crossed the road to the Brandon building.

^Mac, Katherine,^ he continued, ^we need you to tell us what floor those dampeners are one since it's a good bet that's where we'll find the scientist.^

^As soon as we find them you'll know,^ Katherine said, ^We'll also try to deactivate them, but don't count on that. We *will* give you as much of a security blackout as we can though.^

Scott approached the security desk. The woman behind it eyed them.

"Etienne Laurence and associate," Scott told her. "We have an appointment with your director of product distribution in exactly," he pause as he looked at his watch, letting the seconds tic by, "ten minutes," he said when the needle hit twelve.

The guard checked her schedule book and nodded when she found his name in it. The company Scott had used to make the appointment was one of the fronts the AMA used for their sting operations. Thomas hadn't obtained permission for them to use it, but he was friends with some of the people in charge of maintaining them. He now owed a few of them favors, but they'd agree not to notice the activity.

She pulled out three badges and started handing them when she was distracted by someone entering the building.

Scott caught Ororo's entrance from the corner of his eye. She was wearing red high heel shoes, a red vinyl mini skirt and a small red plush jacket over a pink tube top. Her white hair was died black and styled so that it only came down to her shoulders instead of her lower back. She was definitely going to be remembered, but not recognized. If she exposed any more skin she would have to be arrested for indecent exposure.

A step behind her Bishop was dressed in a black suit that managed to make Thomas' look festive. With the black sunglasses he was wearing and the humorless look on his face there was no mistaking him for anything other than a bodyguard.

Ororo walked through the lobby like she owned the place, and Bishop followed ready to break the arm of anyone who dared touch her. People parted before her. She reached the elevator and Bishop pressed the call button. When the doors opened Bishop entered first. She stepped in and turned around with a flourish, looking at the crowd which had stopped moving, as the doors closed.

There was a moment of silence after she was no longer visible; probably everyone asking themselves if she had been real. Scott cleared his throat and the noise seemed to being the crowd back to life. He took the passes and handed the extras to jean and Thomas.

^Peter, have you made it in?^ he asked.

^DA,^ he answered as a side door opened. Peter stepped out from it carrying a ten gallon water bottle on each shoulder. His hair had been bleached and he was wearing the uniform from the local bottled water company.

Only Scott, Ororo and Peter had had to change their looks since it was possible someone they had interacted with while they took down Genietech might now be working here. Henry's large frame was distinctive enough that nothing short of putting him a gorilla suit would have hidden his identity.

Peter took the same elevator up as they did, but stayed in it while the other three left it on the second floor. From there Scott, Jean and Thomas went their separate ways, they would attract less attention this way and they would be able to cover more grounds.

While the purchase of the V3425-C indicated one floor would be locked off, none of them could believe that all the scientists would be there. Too many different pieces of equipment were needed for any kind of genetic work and not all of them were easily moved so they memorized, with Jean's help, the pictures of everyone who had been kidnapped and were now on the looked for them.

^Jean,^ Henry said, ^I need a private link with Scott.^

^You have it,^ she replied.

^How are you doing?^ Scott asked.

^We've confirmed that the dampeners are on the eight floor. We've also hacked their camera system, and we found a complication.^

^What kind?^

^Twelve mutants under heavy guard, all of them with visible mutations . . . and they're kids.^


	5. Chapter 5

There was a moment of silence at that news.

^What are they doing with kids?^ Scott asked.

^Who knows, probably experimenting on them.^ Henry took a loser look at the image on his screen. It was black-and-white and grainy, but he could tell that the children were scared. The boy who looked like his skin was made of rock was crying and holding a smaller girl with hair waving around like snakes. ^We can't leave them here.^

^Can you find any proof that they're here against their will?^ Thomas asked.

^I haven't found anything at this point.^

^We need evidence if we're going to be able to do something about it.^

Henry was stunned into momentary silence.

"We're not leaving them here to be turned into guinea pigs!"

The look Katherine gave him told him his outburst had been out loud. He was surprise at his anger behind it. He took a moment to calm himself.

Thomas was silent during that time.

^I apologize, but you can't be serious about leaving them here.^

^I can't stop you or Scott from rescuing them,^ Thomas said after a moment, ^and I wouldn't even try. If you have evidence can get a squad here under thirty minutes to take this building apart brink by brink, but without it me and Jean can't be involved in this.^

^Scott?^ Henry asked.

^I can give you fifteen minutes Mac. After that we need to start moving or we're really going to be drawing attention to ourselves.^

^That's all I'll need.^ Henry replied. "Katherine I need you to keep their security off my back while I go rampaging through their systems." He didn't wait for her reply, he slicked back his black hair and started going through the companies' computers.

"Got it," she said. She started typing on the laptop in front of her.

^All right everyone,^ came Scott's voice over the mental link, ^the situation is changing. Keep looking for our scientists but don't do anything, in fifteen we'll know exactly what we are doing.^

Henry went through Brandon's database like a hurricane, counting on Katherine from stopping any alarms. From her constant cursing he was giving her a difficult time of it, but the building remained quiet.

He forced himself not to look at the clock. He couldn't afford the distraction. He had to find proof the children had been abducted. Sweat beaded on his brow as he plowed through folders after folders, from one computer to the next; it had to be there, it had to be,

^Mac?^ Scott said.

^I need a few more minutes,^ he replied.

^We don't have them. We need to start this now.^

"Fuck!" Henry slammed his fist on the metal table hard enough to dent it and break his skin. ^I don't have anything.^

^OK,^ Scott told everyone, ^here's the situation. There twelve mutant kids being held here. We aren't leaving them here, but we don't know if that are here legally or not. So we're losing Thomas and Jean.^

^Without Thomas to get everyone out, how are we going to manage it?^ Ororo asked.

^We'll improvise. Jean, will you be able to keep us linked?^

^I don't know. I'll be ok while we're leaving, but it depends on how far we'll go. Thomas?^

^We can't take the time to leave. Me and Jean need to hook up and grab the first shadow out of here. Ideally I should take us home, but I'll settle for the local AMA office. That's twenty miles from here. Henry, call me the moment you find something and I'll be back.^

^Mac, we need the room where the kids are.^

Henry didn't respond immediately, he was looking at the red liquid running down the back of his hand and contrasting with his pink skin. ^Eight floor, room 822.^ A shiver ran down his back and he started digging through the files again to keep his worry at bay.

^Peter, Bishop, you two go get the kids and whatever scientist you find on that floor. Ororo, you and me are getting the rest of them. Once you have them, head for the underground parking lot, and remember everyone, non-lethal force only. These aren't mutants, beings, they're just humans who aren't getting paid enough to go up against us.^

^Katherine, we need that Security blackout.^ Scott said before his voice disappeared from their head.

"Mac," she said, "you're going to have to be more careful in your search. I'm going to be busy providing them cover."

Henry looked at her and forced himself to remember other people depended on them. "Ok," he said and slowed down his search, careful not to attract attention as he went through each computer. He quickly lost track of how many of them he searched without finding anything.

"Mac, I need your help," Katherine said.

"Busy here," he answered.

"Mac, I'm serious. I need back up. Their security guy's catching up to my tricks really fast."

Henry continued his search.

"Mac, NOW! If Peter gets caught because of you I'm not going to forgive you, ever, got that?"

"Sorry," Henry closed the laptop and opened the one next to it. He joined her in fighting off Brandon's computer expert. Fifteen minutes later Henry was fighting to keep the alarms from sounding.

"Damn it that guy's good," Katherine cursed, "he's almost got control of the elevators."

"We're going to need those."

"I know, but it's almost like this guy can read my mind. Can you help me out?"

Henry split his screen and did what he could, but Katherine was right. Brandon's computer expert was extremely good. Even together they weren't able to maintain control over them.

"Damn it, he locked me out of them."

"Keep trying to get back control," Henry told her.

"Why? I won't be able to get it back."

"Maybe not, but I don't want him to be able to put his full attention to brining the alarm system back online."

"Ok, but we still need a way to tell Scott and Peter not to take the elevators."

"I'm working on that."

* * * * *

Scott looked at his watch. Almost an hour since he'd found his first scientist and still no alarm.

He'd made his sweep from the second floor and went up while Ororo started at the seventh and moved down. They'd met on the fifth floor and were done with it also now. Between the two of them they had twenty-two scientists and had tied up almost twice that number of Brandon personnel.

His cell beeped once, letting him know he'd received a text message. He checked it quickly; it was from Henry; 'Elevators offline. Take stairs."

He redirected the group to them and started making their way down. A moment later he got another text. 'Guards at bottom of stairs. Third floor clear to opposite stairs.'

Scott had the scientist exit on that floor and they cautiously made their way toward the other side of the building. Like Henry's message had said the floor was clear.

Until he walked into Peter, Bishop and their group.

"What are you doing here?" He asked them.

"Mac texted me to go to the other stairs on this floor because there's guards at the bottom on the one we were in."

"We got the same message," Scott said.

"Trap," Bishop said and moved to the exposed end of the group, fists glowing.

Scott look in the opposite direction to see Ororo take a defensive position, and beyond her half a dozen guards armored and armed with heavy machine guns take position. The same thing happened on Bishop's side.

"That thing about using non lethal force?" Bishop asked.

"Still applies," was Scott's answer.

"That is wise," said an unseen voice from behind the guards, "after all you wouldn't want to add murder to the kidnapping charges." The man who spoke made his way through the guards to stand in front of them. "Mister Summers I presume," he continued, "I must say that I never expected your little group to pay my humble company a visit."

Scott looked the man over. He was tall, almost six foot six, and thin. His blond hair was tied back in a ponytail and the goatee's color match the hair exactly. His suit was the color of salmon flesh.

Because of the long hair and suit color Scott didn't want to take the man seriously, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was much more to him.

"And you are?"

The man raised an eyebrow. "Sebastian Brandon, of course."

"Well, Mister Brandon, when you kidnap mutants and scientists you better damn well expect a visit from us."

"And pray tell Mister Summers, what makes you think that I have kidnapped any mutants?" Sebastian said with a wide smile.

"You expect me to believe these kids are here of their own free will?"

Sebastian's smile became even wider. "These children are minors, as such their free wills have very little to do with what happens to them. I do, however, have their parent's permissions to keep them here during their treatments."

"What kind of treatment?"

"To cure them of their conditions, of course."

Scott's blood started boiling and his eyes shining red. That anyone still thought that mutations were something unnatural made him angry. That someone would want to find a 'cure' pissed him right off.

"Now, now Mister Summers, you might want to remain calm, after all, you are in enough trouble already."

"Yeah," Scott said through grated teeth, "and how about the thirty or so scientist you kidnapped?

The man seemed to think about it for a moment. "Well, should you decide to start something, there is no guaranty any of them will be in any condition to say anything."

"Trust me, if *you* start anything these people will be walking out of here without so much of a scratch on them, and ready to go to the news with what happened to them."

"A compromise then, I let you and the scientists go with the promise that absolutely nothing of what happened here reaches the media and the children stay here since you have no legal grounds to take them."

"Prove to me you have their parent's authorization and I might consider it."

"Of course," Sebastian took out a cell phone, "Mister Emmerson, could you bring me the children's files please."

While they waited an argument broke out among the scientist.

"How can anyone even think of going along with that? They kidnapped us and kept us prisoner." One said.

"What do you want to do? Fight them? They've got guns," said another.

"I just want to go home to my family," another said.

It didn't take long before it descended into cacophony until a voice shouted above it.

"Enough! These people just risked a lot to come rescue us. We're not going to make their lives any more difficult by fighting like this. Whatever they need us to do, we will do."

"Why should we? I don't know them from Adam."

"Well, I do. They are friends of one of my students."

The man fought his way through the crowd toward Scott.

"You must be Scott," he said, presenting his hand, "I'm Maurice, one of Henry's old teachers."

Scott took the man's hand and shook it. Maurice looked to be in his late sixties. His face was sagging a little and he was heavyset. He also hadn't shaved in a while.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"I just want you to know that we, all of us, will do whatever you need us to do."

"I'm happy to hear that. For now I just need you to keep everyone calm and quiet." Scott turned to look at the man that was pushing the guards aside. He was much shorter than Sebastian and rather large. Even in the brown pin striped suit he wore he looked more like a wrestler than a paper pusher.

"Thank you Mister Emmerson," Sebastian said as he took the files and crossed the space separating him from Scott.

Scott looked through the first folder carefully. Most of it was legalese, but he did find a parental consent form. He found one in each folders.

"If I find out these are forgery," Scott left the threat hanging.

"You won't. Feel free to keep the files and contact their parents. You will find that everything is in order."

Scott looked at the files he was holding for a moment. He didn't want to do this. "Peter."

"You can't do this," Peter objected.

"We don't have a choice."

"We can fight them."

"We can't win this. Not in the long run, they have the legal high ground."

"Fuck the law. Anyone can buy a lawyer. This isn't right."

"I know that. That's why I'm going to have Matt go through all of this and if he finds the smallest thing wrong we're going to be back."

Peter was seething.

"Bishop, hand the kids to the guards."

Bishop looked at him for a moment before nodding. He brought the children to the guards. He had to carefully untangle a green girl who looked to be ten from his arm.

Once the guards had all the children Sebastian moved aside.

"You are free to go," he said with a sweep of his arm, "but remember, none of this reaches the media."

Scott glared at him. "I'm going to explain how serious this is, but once they go back to their lives, I can't control what they do."

"Fair enough," Sebastian said with a nod.

Scott led everyone out.

Ororo was the last one to pass Sebastian. She stopped in front of the taller man and looked him in the eyes.

"I don't care about the law or the power you wield. If I found out that just one of the children has been hurt in any way. I will be tearing down this building as well as any other you might own."

With a gulp Sebastian looked away.


	6. Chapter 6

Henry was out of the van the moment he saw Scott exit the stairs.

"What the hell happened?" he asked, his voice echoing in the mostly empty garage. "Why'd you leave the kids with them?"

"We don't have the legal ground to take them," Scott answered as he kept on walking.

Henry grabbed Scott's arm to force him to stop. "What do you mean 'we don't have the legal ground'? They kidnapped them."

"No they didn't." Scott raised a hand to forestall Henry's objection. "Look Mac, I've already gone through this with Peter and we don't have the time to get in it here. Brandon let us go, but I don't want to take the risk he's going to change his mind."

"Fine," Henry said releasing him, "but this conversation isn't over."

"Yeah, I know. How many people can you and Katherine take?"

"Six," Henry said after thinking on it, "seven or eight if they don't mind being cramped."

"Ok, take seven; we should be able to fit the rest in the other vans. We're heading to the AMA office since Thomas is there, we'll meet up there. I've already let Jean know.

Henry raise an eyebrow at that news, Scott hadn't used his cell to call her. He looked the crowd over. "Maurice, you and six of your friends are riding with me."

"Everyone else follow me," Scott said, "our rides are outside."

* * * * *

"Maurice!" Alicia ran to him and kissed him hard as soon as the older man got out of the van.

They had been the first ones to arrive since the other had to walk a few blocks to where the minivans were parked. The original plan had been for Thomas to take the scientists there as they were freed. The underground parking lot didn't have any other vehicles, only them and two dozen AMA agents forming a half circle between them and the entrance to the office.

Like the other scientists Henry found himself looking away in embarrassment from the display of affection as he exited the Beauville. He stopped and forced himself to look at them so he could study his reaction.

He watched as Maurice buried his nose in her neck.

There was no logic to his reaction, even with the age difference there was nothing wrong with showing love. He shouldn't be ashamed of it, he should be proud that they had found each other. They were a beacon of joy in what was turning out to be a rather poor day for him.

"How are you doing?" Thomas asked him.

Henry had been so intent on the couple he hadn't noticed him moving next to him.

"Not good." He just glanced at Thomas as he spoke and kept his voice level. "We had to leave the kids behind." He wanted to take his boyfriend in his arms, hold him close to him and take comfort in his warmth.

"Why?" The moment of silence before Thomas asked that told Henry that he wanted to do the same, but they had to control themselves.

"No sure," Henry said, "legal issues. Scott didn't have time to explain, but I'm going to get it out of him when he gets here." Henry might not care right now if others realized he was gay, but if he got demonstrative here it wouldn't be just him that would pay for it. Thomas' career could be destroyed.

Thomas' father would prevent any stigma from hurting him within his own office, but he wasn't always going to be there to protect him so this one time Henry was going to keep tight control over his needs.

The thought wasn't done going through his head that Henry was standing in a vast empty space. Thomas was next to him with a similarly surprised expression, but there was nothing else only whiteness as far as he could see.

"I figured you two could use some privacy," resonated Jean's voice around them, "don't worry I'll let you know if you're needed for something."

Henry looked at his boyfriend and tentatively moved a hand toward him. Thomas mirrored him and Henry was mildly surprised when the hands touched. He ran a finger across the palm before linking his fingers with his. It felt real, right down to the ridges on the skin. His next thought was pushed out of his head when Thomas grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him into a passionate kiss.

Henry responded avidly and pressed into him. Thomas had to take a few steps back under the force of the kiss until he was stopped by a solid surface. Henry only accorded himself a moment to wonder where it had come from before going back to focus on his lover's delicious lips.

Henry shivered when he felt Thomas' finger caress his lower back and he squeezed the man's cheek in response, pulling him closer against him. It's only when their groin touched and he could not only feel how excited they both were, but the heat of skin to skin contact that he realized something was odd.

He pulled out of the kiss only long enough to confirm they were both naked before going back to it.

"Hmm guys, you might want to tone it down," Jean said around them, "There's only so much I can do to keep your bodies from reacting to what you are doing."

"We should stop," Thomas said between kisses.

"Yes," Henry replied, but not stopping, "It isn't fair to the poor woman that she has to see us doing this while she babysits our bodies."

Even agreeing to do it, it took them more than a minute before they could pull themselves apart. Henry took a step back panting heavily. He looked his boyfriend over and licked his lips hungrily. Thomas straightened up as he looked back at him with a lecherous smile on his face and emphasized that he was at full mast.

It took Henry all his will power not to go down on his knees and go for it.

"I think we should get dressed," He said as he tried to look away from his lover's pride.

"Sure, as soon as you tell me where our clothes are," Thomas' tone made it clear he was in no hurry.

"This is a mindscape. We need to will them back on."

"Oh," Thomas said disappointed.

"Well?" Henry asked after nothing happened for a minute.

"You're not going to believe me, but I'm trying. I don't know why it's not happening."

Henry understood Thomas' confusion. He had received basic training in resisting telepath and that made him adept at forcing his mind to do what he wanted it. Not that he was complaining, he was quite enjoying looking at his naked form.

Henry realized what might be the problem. He cast a glance down at his own patently obvious excitement and forced himself to want to see Thomas clothed. When he looked up the man was wearing the suit he'd been wearing earlier.

"I think we're linked in an emotional feedback loop. We both need to want it to happen."

"That might cause a problem then," Thomas said with a lopsided smile, "'cause I can't see that I want to see you wear anything right now."

"Try?" Henry pleaded. A moment later he was wearing his clothing again.

"I guess that's why we're so hot for each other right now."

Henry nodded. "My need is feeding yours which is feeding mine back. We're lucky we're both strong willed, otherwise we might be in trouble."

"If we stay here much longer we'll still be in trouble. It's getting harder and harder to stop myself from ripping your clothes off and taking you right now."

Henry groaned in desire at the thought. They both knew that he wouldn't resist even if he wasn't overloaded with his need for Thomas.

"You two are going to want to be here for this," Jean said.

And Henry was back in his body, causing it to flush as it caught up to the way he was feeling. His pants suddenly became uncomfortably tight. Fortunately he was standing at the back of a large meeting room and everyone was looking at the front of it. Thomas was standing a dozen feet away from him, also against the wall. Thomas looked at him and gave him a quick embarrassed smile before Scott called for attention.

"Before Commander Trey talks I want to tell you what condition Brandon gave for releasing you. He doesn't want any of this to reach the media."

"He's kidding, right?" a woman said, "we should be dragging his ass in court and making him pay." Many others echoed her sentiment.

"I'm just passing along his message. I won't tell you what to do, but I want you to remember that he was able to arrange to have all of you kidnapped and suppress the investigations. That means he has resources not just here in the US but across the globe."

"So what, he just gets away with it?" asked someone with a thick Russian accent.

"Hardly," Commander Trey said. He was a short and stocky man who radiated his authority without even trying. "The AMA will be looking into this now. We will be looking at the investigations the police should have done to find out why nothing came of them. If we can find even the finest thread that leads back to Brandon you have my guaranty that he will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

"How do I get home?" the same Russian asked.

"We will be contacting your Embassies to make arrangements. We will also arrange to get anyone else who needs help getting home. In the mean time, we have setup some interview rooms for those who which to have their statements taken down. The cafeteria is also available as well as rooms for those who want to rest."

The scientists were escorted out of the room.

"As for the lot of you," the Commander said once all the scientists and personnel had left, "I don't appreciate not being informed when another office runs an operation in my jurisdiction."

"This wasn't an AMA operation," Scott stated.

"Don't give me that bullshit, what are these two doing here if they aren't involved?"

"Jean and Tom are friends, we asked for their help and they gave it."

"Is that true Agent Black?" The older man pierced Thomas with his gaze.

"Yes sir. The office was never made aware of what we were doing."

"That's bullshit and you know it. I know your father, boy. There's no way you pulled this off without him finding out about it."

"Yes sir. My father might very well be aware of it, but the Commander of the New York office was never officially told about this."

The Commander eyed Thomas. "Better be careful when using semantics, boy, some people aren't known to appreciate them."

"Yes sir, I'll keep that in mind, sir."

"Do the lot of you need a ride back to New York?"

"As long as our vans aren't being impounded for your investigation we have our own way back."

"No, we don't need them. Just sign out with Clarisse when you leave." The Commander looked each one of them over before leaving.

There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence.

"Ok Mac, out with it," Scott said.

Henry was surprise to find that his anger was mostly gone. His time with Thomas had replaced it with someone he'd take care of on the way home, as long as he could convince everyone else not to ride with them.

"Why'd you get off on the third floor? You had clear access to the parking lot."

Scott studied Henry, surprised at the lack of animosity. "You texted me to do it."

"No I didn't," Henry replied flatly, "I told you to take the stairs. When you left them I sent more to find out why, I even tried to call you but you ignored me."

Scott put his cell on the table and slid it to Henry. He opened it and looked at the text in question.

"This is impossible," he said as he handed it to Katherine.

"Brandon's security guy must have sent it," she said as she looked over the cell's history, "there's also no sign he received your call."

"He can't be that good. He would have to have figured out which provider we use, hacked their system as well as found my number and Scott's under three minutes." He looked at her. "We're very good, do you think that even working together we'd be able to do that?"

Katherine looked at him, but couldn't answer.

* * * * *

"Henry, wait," Alicia yelled across the parking lot.

Henry turned as he opened the door to the Beauville. Thomas was already seated in the passenger seat. It hadn't taken any work to convinced the others not to ride with him, he'd forgotten that with four vehicles each couple would be driving by themselves.

"I wanted to thank you," she said as she hugged him, "You have no idea how much this means to me."

"I think I have an idea," he replied softly as he hugged her back. "I saw how precious he was to you." He waved at Maurice who was standing by the entrance. "Now, you take good care of the old man, it's been a pretty harsh time for him."

She hugged him again before joining Maurice.

"Do you think it's going to work between them?" Thomas asked once Henry was sitting.

"They will make it work; she's going to keep him young," Henry replied as he turned the ignition, "but lets not think about them. We need to find a secluded place so we can take care of us."


	7. Chapter 7

Scott glanced at his cell when it rang. It was Jean. He quickly pulled to the side of the highway and opened it.

"Hey Jean, how is it going?" He asked as the car came to a stop.

"Where are you?" she asked coldly.

"I'm near Providence," he answered, reading the sign he saw in the distance.

"You're supposed to be here."

"What?" and then he remembered what day this was. "Oh Damn, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot about going to your parents."

"How the fuck could you forget?" She yelled, "I reminded you last night. You said you'd be here. Do you have any idea how important it is to me that you meet my parents?"

"Look Jean, I said I was sorry," he said defensively, "I've just been busy trying to get the kids out of Brandon's grasp. You know how important that is."

"Yeah. I'm starting to see just where your priorities are," she said before hanging up."

Scott looked at the phone. What had she meant by that? He called her back, but she didn't answer.

^Jean?^ he sent as he put the phone away. She didn't respond to that either.

Scott cursed. Of everyone he'd have expected Jean to understand why he was doing this. He'd have to figure out a way to make it up to her when he got back. He pulled back on the highway and head north on the I95.

The house he walked up to was old, probably dating back to the twenties. It was a small two story home. It showed signs that it had be worked on in the last few years, but also showed signs of wear; the stucco was falling off in places.

He knocked and a woman wearing an apron answered.

"Hello," he said, "are you Max Merle's mother?" Max was the rock covered child he'd seen at Brandon's facility

"Yes, how can I help you?"

"Can I come in? I'd like to talk to you about your son."

She hesitated a moment before moving out of the way.

"Who's it, Liz?" a man asked from another room.

"Someone who's here to talk about Max."

A moment later the man was joining them. "What's wrong with our son?" He was a heavy set man with short curly brown hair.

"Nothing, as far as I know," Scott answered.

"What do you mean 'as far as you know'? Aren't you from Brandon?"

"No, I'm not."

"Who are you then?" she asked.

"My name is Scott Summers, I'd like to know what brought you to send your son there."

"What is it to you?"

"I'm concerned that you might have been coerced into it."

"What the hell are you talking about? Nobody forces us to do nothing."

"Then why did you send him there?"

"'Cause they said they'd try to cure him."

Scott kept his reaction under control by reminding himself these were just parents, not evil people. "Why do you think he needs to be cured?"

"Lemme show you something," the man said before guiding Scott to the back of the house. He pointed to a child size hole in the ceiling and removed a sheet of plywood covering a similar hole on the floor. "A year ago the floor gave out under Max. He was only eight and the floor couldn't support his weight."

"You could reinforce them."

"And how the hell am I suppose to pay for that? I'm just a factory worker I can just afford to pay my bills. You think these holes would still be there if I could afford to fix them?"

"Have you asked the government for help?"

"Sure I have, but his mutation doesn't qualify as a disability so they didn't do anything."

"How about the school system? I know they have program in place to help family of mutant children."

"You wanna know what the school's done for my son? Nada, except for having him come home crying because he was teased for the way he looks. Look I know the school's doing the best it can, but kids are cruel and they'll attack anyone who's different. So unless you have a school for mutant kids don't talk to me about asking them for help.

"If Brandon can't help my son I'll take him back and I'll do everything to give him a good life, but I pray to god that when my son comes back to us he looks like a normal boy should."

Scott had nothing he could say to that so he thanked them for their time and left. He understood their situation, but he didn't like it. He couldn't help feeling that Brandon was using these people's situation to his own advantage.

He checked his list, the family of the child who looked like a lizard lived on the north side of Boston he'd go talk to them and then head home.

* * * * *

Henry and Katherine were locked out of Brandon Pharmaceutical computers again. They had been at it all morning but every attack they launched was expertly blocked.

"Ok, that guy is definitely impressing me," she said as she stretched her arms. "I'm out of tricks, so I'm taking a break. You should take one too."

"In a while," Henry replied, continuing to type. He was pissed that Brandon's expert was better than he was. It wasn't vanity, it was from his need to help out the children. He had tried everything, even finding the man indirectly, but he couldn't find any trace of him. The man had completely covered his tracks. It spoke of someone with great skill and something to hide, which only reinforced his desire to get the children out of there. He set about infiltrating the government tax's system again. Brandon had to have declared the man somewhere on his reports.

Henry signed when someone massaged his shoulders. The hands were firm but tender and they worked on some of his knotted muscles. He closed his eyes for a moment to appreciate it.

"Thanks Thomas," He said after a minute of it.

The man leaned in and kissed him on the neck. "You need to come home Henry."

"In a while, I need to finish this first."

"You've been at it for three days now."

"I know. I just need to help these kids."

Thomas didn't say anything as he left and Henry went back to work.

Five minutes later the power in the room went out. Henry looked around in the utter darkness trying to figure out why it had happen. He stood and headed for the door.

He was almost there when he felt a wrenching sensation. He stopped moving. He was familiar with the feeling. Thomas had just taken him out of the real world and into a shadow. A moment later he was ejected out of it, he tripped and fell on his bed. When he sat up as Thomas walked out of the shadow.

"Why did you do that?" Henry asked in annoyance.

"I told you, you needed to come home," Thomas answered calmly as he removed his jacket.

"I was working on something important," the larger man said as he stood and headed for the door.

"No you weren't," Thomas replied as he covered it with a shadow. He had no intention of letting Henry leave.

Henry slammed a hand on the shadow in frustration and turned to face his lover. "Are you telling me you don't think recuing those kids isn't important?"

"Of course it is, but you weren't working. You were obsessing."

"No I wasn't."

"Henry, I watched you hack the IRS database. Do you have any idea how many laws you broke doing that? You would never have done it if you were being rational about this."

"What do you want me to do? Just forget about them? I can't do that."

"What I want you to do is come lie down on the bed and let me give you a massage. After that we are going to curl up together and sleep. I just spent two nights sleeping alone in *our* bed, I'm not doing that for a third one."

Henry glared at him, not moving.

"I'm not letting you out of this room until you do."

With a defeated sigh Henry lied down on the bed.

* * * * *

Katherine left Henry to whatever else he wanted to try and went out looking for her boyfriend. She found Peter in the weight room, working out his frustration. She removed her shirt and hung it on the hook next to the door. She picked up two ten pound barbells and sat next to Peter with was on the bench press.

"How did it go?" he asked as he groaned under the four hundred pounds he was pushing up.

"Poorly, we were blocked each time. Henry's still there trying something else." She lifted the barbells slowly.

"How can you be so calm about this?"

"What good is it going to do if I go ballistic? I'm just a genius hacker, not God. I've done everything I could think of and now we're going to have to think of something else."

"I want to walk up to that building and bring it down around that smug bastard."

She waited until he put the bar back on its stand and he sat on his stomach. "And what is that going to accomplish?"

"It would make me feel better."

"How about we go take a shower and I make you feel better instead?"

Peter smiled. "That sounds like a worthwhile compromise.

* * * * *

"Are you sure about this?" Bishop asked Ororo as he drove the pickup up the long driveway.

"We've discussed it already," she answered, "yes, I'm sure."

"How are the others going to react to it? Have you told them?"

"Love, they are going to be okay with it. No I didn't, but they trust you now. Scott would never have asked for your help rescuing those scientists if he didn't."

He nodded and came to a stop in front of the door to the mansion. "Speaking of that, how are you dealing with leaving the kids behind?"

"Brandon knows what to expect if he hurts them. If he didn't take my threat seriously that's his problem. How about you?" she asked as she took two of the lighter boxes off the bed of the truck.

Bishop shrugged and took the three heavy ones. Those five boxes contained everything he owned that he was comfortable bringing to the mansion, the rest was in a locker in Grand Central.

"It wasn't my decision, but I agree with it. We wouldn't have been able to win that fight without casualties. The kids didn't have any signs they had been mistreated before so there's no reason to think they will be now."

They passed Scott on the way to Ororo's room. He barely acknowledged them.

"What's with him?" Bishop asked.

"He and Jean had a fight a few days ago," she replied, "he's still trying to find a way to earn her forgiveness."

Bishop nodded and kept his thoughts to himself.

Once in her room she placed the boxes in a corner and looked around. "Is this going to be okay?" she asked him. He room was modest a bed, a drawer a closet, a window that let in the morning sun and an attached bathroom. "There're larger rooms we can move to if you want."

He put the boxes down and looked at her, without even glancing at the room. He hadn't been here before now. "We can look at them later if you want to," he said as he approached her, "whatever room we choose will be perfect as long as you are in it with me."

He kissed her passionately and she responded in kind.


End file.
